Speakers recommendations ~ $350 budget

[josephwyr]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my desktop speakers.

Currently I'm on a multimedia desktop setup, Swans M50w.

So I wish to step into the direction of more audiophile equipments and have a budget for $350ish usd for a starting set of speakers.

I understand the need for amplifiers and dacs as well, but I will first settle the speakers here if not it might get a bit messy.

Mainly I will be using them for music listening, The genres i will be listening to will be mainly Alternative and Rock. Room that they will be in are 4m x 3m. Near field listening ( computer desktop usuage).

I have been looking around speakers around this price range, and i thought these few seems quite good in their range.

Definiteive Technology StudioMonitor 45

Ascend CBM-170 SE

ARX A1B

Emp Tek E5bi

The issue I have for the EMP TEK is that without a subwoofer it will not have much of a bass, thus even though it might sound very good on paper, it wont be a very "balanced" set up.

Although I like things to be clear and natural sounding, I still want abit of bass in my music..

Or am I better off saving up abit and getting the Arcaydis DM1?

Some help here please.. I'm located in asia, so even with these brands offering free trial of 30 days, return shipment is still costly.

 

[KidKomet]

Hi Jospeh!

Active monitors aren't a bad way to go given your needs. Something like M-Audio's BX8's might be worth a listen (Though just over budget) if you can get them in your region.

 

[josephwyr]

Hi KK,

I have looked into them , the M-Audio BX2 , it is retailing at around $645usd or 440 pounds locally. It is significantly higher than the price i looked at online, was seeing them at around $410usd on amazon , that put these pair of speakers out of the budget by nearly double. I will still go down for an audition though, since the money savings from amps will be able to go into the speakers instead, but i will just feel rip off having to pay such a high premium over the original retail price in the US.

And if its not much trouble, can you please explain to me , why in my case i'm better off with active speakers rather than going down the passive route?

 

[josephwyr]

edit: ooops, double post ... anyway to delete this post?